November 25, 2016

Xindi Siau is a professional fashion stylist and full time mom to two special dogs with an affinity for all things creative, whether it be creating artistic pieces or running a mini catering business. Before this series, Xindi had good-naturedly loaned her clothes to us for our past photoshoots. Another gesture that emanated her gracious nature occurred during our time with her. As it began to rain during our session, we rushed over to cover her with an umbrella but she waved it off and smiled, saying that it wasn’t necessary because she didn’t want it to get in the way of our pictures. Moments like this conveyed her kindness and sophisticated charm. In between the rain and shine of our shoot, we asked Xindi to share about her career and the path she took to get where she is.

November 22, 2016

Evon Chng is a freelance fashion stylist with a sense of style that’s part misfit part chic, and a penchant for putting pen to paper. A detail that stayed with us in our time together was her positivity, and accommodating inclination. The sun came out glaring as we got ready for our first shoot, to which Evon then told us that her eyes were extremely sensitive to the light, instead of asking us to change locations she went inside to grab her sunglasses - and that was that. Even when the morning rain was dripping from the rooftop ledges onto her face, she just laughed it off, joked about how she hoped her makeup wasn’t ruined, and continued on. To top it off, we realized later it was Evon’s birthday and despite her whirlwind of an afternoon with packed schedules and celebration plans, she still made the time for this shoot. In between the chaos of her day, we sat down with her as she shared more about her careers in the past and how that has influenced her career now.

November 19, 2016

Aarika Lee wears many hats, or in her case, many scarves: day time Marketing Director and Copywriter at Elementary Co, night time resident artist at The Mad Men Attic Bar, and full time mother, wife, and full-fledged stylish figure. Aarika’s colourful sense of style is an open reflection of who she is: exuberant and radiant. Her cheerful spirit is contagious and just by being around her brought a smile to our faces. As she was getting ready, her attention turned to Hobo, our office dog, she set aside her accessories to kneel down beside him and stayed that way for minutes on just resting her head to his. Then halfway through our shoot in the rain, we looked behind to see her snacking on almonds and cashews that she pocketed in her Chanel bag. It was endearing gestures like this that made our time with Aarika so memorable. In between our shoots, we asked Aarika to share with us about the careers she’s had and how it brought her to where she is now.

November 18, 2016

Jake is the founder of Ethnotek, a travel bag company that specialised in ethically sourced handmade textiles. Much like MATTER, Ethnotek believes in sustaining employment for the art of hand printing, weaving and embroidery. Celebrating culture, community and keeping traditional artisanal techniques alive.

November 16, 2016

Freedom To Work is a series featuring powerful women who go against the grain by pursuing their creative interests in a culture of tradition and conventionality. We reached out to 4 people in our #MATTERtribe recognized for their confident, vibrant styles, and uncanny ability to mix pieces in surprising combinations. They chose their favourites from our collection and got ready for work and play.

November 08, 2016

Most of the time, the label we look at as consumers is the brand label – we associate a brand’s values with how we want to feel and make a purchase decision based on, mostly, aesthetics and utility. There is a second label that is much more important, however, and it isn’t so easily dissected.

If each of us took some time to understand it, there would be a paradigm...

With ever more millennials striving for purpose alongside profit, it seems inevitable that eventually, all future businesses will be at the very least, expected to be responsible and transparent, and at the very most, charged with solving the world’s many intractable problems.

October 07, 2016

Written for September’s theme of #sustainablefashion for The Huffington Post, we dig deep for the reasons why we do what we do.

Imagine a world where everything that is exchanged, bought, used and consumed is made by machine, on an assembly line. Where every item is judged only on its functionality, valued for its utility, and on its ability to achieve economy of scale. Devoid of colour,...

September 25, 2016

As the heart of Japan, Tokyo is generally known for
its bright neon lights clustered together with the tight houses and unending
streets. With many facets to the city, there are many ways to explore the city.
We explore the different sides of Tokyo, finding that there is more to the city
that meets the eye, from finding peace in the outskirts of town, learning about
generations worth of stories through fabrics, eating hearty protein-rich
hotpots to greeting welcoming arms in traditional Japanese inns.